1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a washer, and more particularly to an apparatus for and a method of determining a twist of clothes being washed in a washer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general washers, a clothes twist signal indicative of a twist of clothes being washed is obtained, based on an experimental measurement. Using such a clothes twist signal, a clothes untwisting mode is carried out, to reduce a phenomenon that clothes become twisted. Otherwise, washers have conventionally used an agitator having a construction changed for reducing the clothes twist phenomenon.
Where clothes are distributed in a washer without a twist, as shown in FIG. 1, an agitator receives uniform impact from the clothes being washed when it is rotated by a rotation force of a motor.
However, when the clothes are twisted, as shown in FIG. 2, the impact applied to the agitator by the clothes becomes higher locally at a portion of the agitator coming into contact with the twisted portion of the clothes. As a result, the twisted cloths of the clothes may be damaged. Furthermore, the washed degree of clothes becomes lowered, because the twisted cloths are hardly washed.
For solving this problem, conventional washers generate a clothes twist signal by sensing a twist of clothes according to the quantity of clothes, the kind of clothes, and a water flow sensing signal when operations in a washing mode and a rinsing mode are carried out. However, it is impossible to determine whether the generated clothes twist signal is a meaningful signal or a noise, because the clothes twist signal has a complexity. As a result, cloths of the clothes may be damaged when operations in the washing mode and the rinsing mode are continued under a condition that the clothes has been twisted, due to an erroneous determination for the clothes twist signal. Moreover, there is a problem that the washing degree is degraded at the twisted portion of clothes.